1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electronic device, and particularly relates to inputting characters to an electronic device.
2. Related Art
Recent years, a so-called toggle input method is known, in which a plurality of character types such as numeric numbers, small letters of alphabet, and capital letters of alphabet are respectively assigned to each numeric keys configuring a numeric key pad of an electronic device, and every time the same numeric key is pressed, a plurality of types of plural characters are cyclically switched. In addition, in JP-A-2004-145434, a method is disclosed, in which a plurality of characters or symbols assigned to each numeric key are designated and input using a plurality of control keys separately from the numeric key pad.
However, in the electronic device in the related art in which the toggle input method is adopted, since an initial value of switching order is always the same, for example, in a case where a user wants to enter the last character in the switching order, the number of presses of the numeric keys necessarily increases compared to a case where the first character in the switching order is input, and thus, the usability deteriorates. On the other hand, in a configuration in which a character type switching key is provided separately from the numeric key pad or in which the characters are designated by a plurality of control keys separately from the numeric key pad as disclosed in JP-A-2004-145434, the cost increases due to the increase of the number of keys in addition to the numeric key pad. In addition, despite the contribution on reducing the number of presses of the same numeric key, in the configuration in which input is performed using the keys in addition to the numeric key pad, there are problems in that the operation becomes complicated and the usability deteriorates compared to the case where the input is performed using only the numeric key pad.